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by StrangerWriter



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-02
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-10-21 06:52:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17637887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrangerWriter/pseuds/StrangerWriter
Summary: When Hopper finds El, she's dirty, hungry, and scared. This is their first night together.





	Home

Snow had started falling again, and it was going to be bitterly cold tonight. Nearly zero. He couldn’t stop thinking about that as he closed the top of the box in the woods shut.

When Earl came into the station spouting a story about a flaming, flying squirrel, everyone thought it was just another one of his drunken mishaps, but Hopper knew the truth; he knew she was still out there somewhere. He started by leaving a blanket for her, and when that disappeared, he brought food.

Eggos. He knew she liked Eggos, seeing as it was the only thing reported stolen from Big Buy by some strange little girl that he later figured out to be Eleven.

With a sigh, he stood up and started the trek back to his Blazer. He was nearly back to the door when he heard it, the sound of crunching snow behind him.

Footsteps.

He paused, wondering if he was only imagining it. However, he turned back to the woods anyway, and there she was, dirty head to toe and wearing the stolen oversized jacket and hat. He took his own hat off, almost as a peace offering, not sure if she remembered or recognized him from their brief meeting nearly a month ago.

She didn’t say anything, but instead stared at him with wide, nervous eyes, waiting for him to make the first move.

“Hey,” he finally said after a minute.

She didn’t reply but stepped a little closer, out from behind the tree she was using for protection. He felt like he was talking to a scared animal. He stepped towards her, and she immediately retreated, looking like she was about to run.

He quickly held his hands up, showing he meant no harm. “It’s going to be very cold tonight. Would you like to come with me?”

It was a simple, straight forward offer, but she was cautious; she didn’t trust him. And hell, maybe she was right not to trust him. Though she didn’t know it, he was the one who gave her up a month ago. He did what he had to do, and he wouldn’t have done it if he didn’t think she could protect herself.

He could see the conflict in her eyes. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he softened. “See this,” he pointed to his Blazer. “I’m a policeman. I help people who are in trouble, and I help fight the bad guys,” he explained to her. “I promise, I’m not here to hurt you.”

He _promised_. Hopper didn’t know it, but that was the magic word. She walked towards him slowly. “Okay, okay good,” Hopper commented softly. He opened the passenger door, and without a word, she climbed up.

When her door slammed shut, the air rushed out of him.

She was safe.

The gravity of what keeping her safe would require wouldn’t settle in for him until later that night.

He turned the heat all the way up because even he was cold after being outside for only a few minutes, and he drove them back to his trailer. He knew she wouldn’t be able to stay there, but it would have to do for tonight.

He glanced at her on the way; she was quiet and still, curled in on herself and engulfed in the too large clothing. He noticed she had bare legs, and he realized she must still be wearing the same clothes that he last saw her in nearly a month ago.

Hopper wasn’t quite sure what to say in a circumstance like this, and El still hadn’t said a word, so the ride was silent until they pulled up to his trailer.

“This is our stop,” he told her. “My name is Jim Hopper by the way. Some people call me Hopper or just Hop,” he explained to her before getting out of the vehicle. She climbed out too and followed close behind him, up the stairs, and into the trailer.

He immediately locked the door behind them and turned on the lights. This was the first time he could properly see exactly how malnourished she was, though he tried not to stare because she was visibly timid and avoided any eye contact with him.

He shed his jacket and belt on the table. El copied him, removing her jacket and hat. Hopper turned on more lights and moved to the hallway.

“So uh, my bathroom is here if you want to take a hot shower, or bath, or whatever. And I will try to find you something clean to put on.”

El followed behind him and he turned the light on for her. “Soap,” he pointed at the bottle in the corner of the tub. He pulled a clean towel from the cabinet. “Here’s a towel, and just a minute... I’ll find something for you to wear.”

He left the room, and El finally had a chance to see herself in the mirror.

She wondered what the opposite of pretty was, because she knew that was what she looked like now. Maybe it was a good thing she wasn’t with Mike anymore. Would he still like her even when she looked _bad_?

Hopper returned after a minute with a pair of too-big socks and a worn, button up flannel to replace the one of his that she was wearing over her dress. He definitely had no pants that would fit her small frame.

“So I don’t have much to fit you, but this should work okay until your clothes are cleaned,” he told her, setting her new outfit down on the countertop. “Why don’t you just put all your clothes out in the hallway before you get in the tub and I’ll start them in the washing machine, alright?” he instructed.

Hopper demonstrated how to use knobs of the bathtub and then left her alone. Before she started to close the door, she uttered a soft “thank you.” It was the first words that she had spoken to him, but she knew that you were supposed to say thank you when someone does something nice for you.

“No problem kid,” he answered with a gentle smile, attempting to relieve some of her nervousness.

She didn’t shut the bathroom door completely but closed it enough because she also knew about _privacy_. She pulled off her shoes, socks, plaid shirt, dress, and finally, her underwear, and set them all in the hallway as she was told.

El started the shower and climbed in, staring down at the dirty, grey water washing away down the drain. She first washed her body, and then her hair. Once she was clean, she sat down under the shower head, pulling her knees up to her chest, letting the hot water run over her until she was finally truly warm enough.

El noticed that her skin was growing very pink, and she thought that she should probably get out before she fell asleep in the tub. She knew you weren’t supposed to do that. She turned the knobs off and stepped out into the steamy room, drying herself off with the towel. She unfolded the flannel and brought it up to her face, closing her eyes at the soft comfort of the fabric.

When El started to get dressed, she realized she didn’t have any underwear to put on. She peeked out into the hallway, but the pile of her clothing was gone. For her, this wasn’t totally strange because sometimes she didn’t wear under-things at the lab either, so she buttoned up the flannel and pulled on the socks anyway.

She wiped the steam away on the mirror and examined herself again.

She looked clean, probably not pretty, but at least better than she looked 20 minutes ago. She shut the light off and made her way down the hallway back to the main room.

She found Hopper sitting at a messy table, but he got up quickly when he saw her. He tried not to laugh at the poor kid in his hand-me-downs. The flannel hung to just above her knees, and the socks were so big that they kept sliding down and bunching up, but at least they covered her feet and some of her bare legs. He would have to work on finding her some more appropriate clothing tomorrow.

And then he remembered that today was only Thursday and _tomorrow_ would be a work day. He would have to find an excuse to get out of most of the day somehow. It shouldn’t be hard; he’d done it many times before.

Hopper made his way to the kitchen, knowing she was probably very hungry. She followed him out of the woods too quickly to have eaten anything tonight.

“So let’s see what we have to eat,” he said, rummaging through the cupboards. They were quite bare, so he continued the search for food in the refrigerator. There weren’t really any surprises in there either. He had beer, cheese, a few slices of lunch meat, and hot dogs.

Well, he could at least make her a sandwich. He searched the counter for the bread bag.

Right. That was all out too.

Luckily, there were few hot dog buns left, so they would have to settle for those instead.

“You like hot dogs right?” he asked, but Eleven didn’t answer.

She didn’t think she wanted to eat a dog; she liked dogs. But she was also very hungry.

He put two hot dogs in the microwave and searched his cabinet for a canned vegetable of some sort, hoping to at least feed her something with a little nutritional value tonight.

“Do you want some beans or carrots?” he asked, holding up the two options.

El made a face and shook her head no, and he had to laugh. The dang kid must have disliked vegetables so much that even though she was practically starving to death, she still didn’t want to eat them.

“Alright, you get out of eating them today, but tomorrow is going to be a different story,” he warned her with a chuckle. He pulled the open bag of potato chips off the top of the refrigerator and got out two plates.

“Chips?”

Her eyes lit up and she shook her head yes, so he put a handful on each plate.  Sometimes she was allowed chips as a treat, so she knew that she liked those a lot.

He continued searching the cupboards until he finally found a container of applesauce stuffed in the back. He checked the date, and though he didn’t recall buying it, it wasn’t expired, so he poured some in a small bowl and pulled out a spoon.

El watched him place the hot dogs on the buns.

“Ketchup?” he questioned.

She nodded. She knew that she liked ketchup too, and she remembered back to the last time she ate it with the nice man named Benny. And then she realized that Hopper reminded her of Benny. He clothed her, fed her, and was being nice to her just like Benny had. She had to force herself to stop thinking about it when she remembered how their relationship abruptly ended. That wouldn’t happen now, she promised herself. Hopper was a policeman, so he could fight the bad men whereas Benny could not.

He noticed a change in her face, and she nearly jumped out of her skin when he touched her shoulder. “Whoa, it’s okay,” he promised her softly. “Why don’t you go sit down on the couch and I’ll bring dinner in.”

El did as instructed and went over to the couch, sitting down on one end. Hopper set her bowl and plate down on the end table and made two more trips with his own food and two glasses of water.

He turned the tv on and pulled the blanket off the back of the couch, offering it to her. She tucked her legs under the blanket and reached for her food.

El quickly ate all the applesauce and started on the chips. After a few bites, he watched her pick up the hot dog with two hands, as if she were ready to bite into the middle of it, though he stopped her before she had the chance to.

“Have you ever eaten a hot dog before?” he asked.

“No. I have never ate dogs,” she told him seriously.

This was when he first time he realized just exactly how sheltered and naïve the poor kid really was. She was 12 years old and had never seen a hot dog before.

“First of all, they aren’t made of actual dogs,” he explained to her patiently, as if it were a secret they should keep between the two of them. That made El feel much better about trying it. “And I like to eat them like this,” he demonstrated taking a large bite from one end.

El realized now that she liked this policeman a lot. While he reminded her of Benny, he was also a lot like Mike because he didn’t make her feel stupid for not understanding, like other grownups in the lab sometimes did.

El followed his lead and took a big bite of her own. Ketchup oozed out the corners of her mouth, and she wiped it with her hand. Hopper nodded with a smile, “Mm, it’s good right?”

El returned the nod with the first smile that he’d ever seen from her.

While she ate, she watched the MASH rerun with an intensity that most preteen girls would not have. She finished the rest of her meal rather quickly, even drinking the entire glass of water. He asked if she wanted more, and she ate an entire second hot dog too.

When she was completely full, she knew three things: she like eating in on a couch in front of the television, she liked hot dogs, and she liked this policeman.

Now that her stomach was full, and she was warm, it wasn’t long until exhaustion took over. She curled her legs up under the blanket and laid her head back on the couch, falling asleep rather quickly and unintentionally. She didn’t let her guard down easily, but she was too comfortable to stop her heavy eye lids from closing.

Hopper glanced over at the kid and saw that she was sleeping. He was finally able to study her face well. El was too thin and had black rings under her eyes; her hands had a few scrapes, and there were bruises that he couldn’t see covered by the blanket and her clothing. But for a young girl who spent the better part of a month outside in this weather, she could have been much worse for wear.

He sighed heavily and stood up to take care of their dinner plates. It was something he wouldn’t normally do but did tonight as a means to quell some of his bubbling anxiety. The reality of being solely responsible for her safety came crashing down on him, along with immense guilt because of why she was here in the first place.

He paced the floor for a few minutes, cracked a beer, and picked up the orange prescription bottle of Tuinal. He poured two pills in his hand, but after a moment of contemplating, shoved them back in the bottle. He believed that she was safe here for just one night, but he knew that he needed to be conscious enough to make sure of that, just in case. And though Hopper had yet to realize it, his future-self would have a different form of therapy in the child sleeping peacefully on the couch.

Hopper took her clothes out of the washing machine and placed them in the dryer. He ensured that the front door of the trailer was locked and moved around the house turning off all the lights, leaving only the tv on. He sank back down onto the other end of the couch and propped his feet up on the end table, eventually succumbing naturally to sleep as well.

While El slept peacefully all night, Hopper woke up multiple times, each time anxiously checking the other end of the sofa. At some point, she had curled up on her side, using the arm of the couch for a pillow. His alarm from the bedroom rudely woke him up at 6:30, but the child stayed sleeping through it all. He took a shower and dressed in uniform.

He scanned the kitchen for some type of breakfast food, but there was absolutely nothing; he had taken the last of the Eggos out to the woods last night. He would have to pick up more food later that night. He debated about not waking Eleven up before he left, thinking maybe she would stay asleep until he came back, but he didn’t want her to wake up in a stranger’s house and be frightened.

Hopper sat down next to her on the couch and shook her gently to rouse her. El woke up with a whine and rubbed her eyes sleepily. Once she remembered where she was, she woke up quickly and happily.

“Hey kid, so I have to go in to work for just a little while. So uh, you just stay here and I should be back in a few hours, alright?” he explained.

El nodded.

“I put your clean clothes in the bathroom if you want to get dressed. I don’t really have any breakfast food here, but I’ll stop at the store sometime today and pick up some real food.”

“Dogs?” El asked.

“You want hot dogs for breakfast?” he translated.

El nodded eagerly, and Hopper laughed.

“Yeah, alright,” he agreed going into the kitchen to make her hot dogs for breakfast.

He brought her breakfast back to her on the couch and after a minute, reluctantly got up to leave. El didn’t seem upset about him leaving, so he hoped she would be okay for a few hours on her own. He instructed her not to open the curtains or the front door, no matter what she heard.

Work went by quickly, and Hopper was walking out of the station by noon. He had finally thought of a plan for their future too.

He rushed home, telling himself that he wanted to get them settled in the cabin before going to the grocery store, but really, he was just anxious to see if she was alright.

“Hey kid, it’s me,” he yelled loudly from outside the trailer door before he unlocked it; he didn’t want to scare her. His heart was beating quickly, anxious to see to see if she was alright.

Hopper let out a silent sigh of relief when he saw her sitting on the couch, right where he left her.

She had gotten dressed in her own socks and still dingy, pink dress. She had also put his old blue plaid shirt back on over it. The white collar of her dress was still grey from being so stained, but at least her clothes were clean now.

He explained to her that they were going to go somewhere else, some place that would be a little safer for her to stay. El dressed in her hat, jacket, and shoes, and willingly followed him out of the trailer. Though she liked it just fine there, she trusted this policeman and wanted to go someplace that would be _safe._

She had her doubts when his Blazer stopped seemingly in the middle of the forest, and they both got out and started walking through the snow. She didn’t want to go back into the woods, but she kept quiet and followed close behind him anyway. After a 5-minute walk, they came upon a brown house, and she followed him up on to the porch.

Hopper unlocked the door and she followed him inside, mimicking Hopper’s actions by kicking the snow off her shoes on the door frame.

It was cold and dark in the small cabin, and it was going to take some work, but they would make do.

“My granddad used to live here, a long time ago. I mainly just use it for storage now,” he explained, pausing to look around.  He forgot just how much stuff was being stored here. “A lot of history here,” he continued.

El had wandered inside too, taking in the room, and didn’t notice that he was rearranging some boxes- some of the history that he wasn’t ready to face just yet.

El realized that this place was sort of like his trailer, but different.

She liked it.

“So uh, what do you think?” he asked. “It’s a work in progress you know. It takes a little imagination but, uh, once we fix it up, it’s gonna be nice, real nice. It’s your new home.”

El turned back to him.

“Home,” she repeated with a tiny smile. 

She was finally _home._


End file.
